Anne Peebles

When Anne Dobie Peebles, daughter of the late William Dunn Peebles and Mary Emmerson Dobie Peebles died at her beloved home place Dunnlora Farm, Sussex County on July 12, 2012, in Southside Virginia, lost one of her most timeless champions. Confidant to governors and legislators, friend to educators, member of numerous boards and commissions and relentless in the causes of educational and healthcare advantages for all Virginians, Miss Peebles liked to say she was â??just a simple old country woman.â?
Born July 7, 1922 and brought up on the ancestral Dunn-Peebles family farm near the Nottoway River she left that quiet place to attend the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, where she majored in History and American Government. She graduated from the college in 1944, but her association with education and her accomplishments on its behalf occupied the rest of her life. Upon her return home, Miss Peebles taught History at Sussex High School for two years, then turned her attention to helping her parents manage the familyâ??s widespread timberland and farm interests. But, it was soon apparent that her time at William and Mary had awakened in Miss Peebles interest beyond that bucolic life. Encouraged by her parents, she began to volunteer with public health organizations, serving at both local and state levels for the American Cancer Society, the Heart Fund, and the March of Dimes. In 1944 she joined the Stony Creek Chapter of the Virginia Federation of Womenâ??s Clubs. She quickly advanced through district club positions, became state treasurer for the organization in 1954, Vice President in 1956, and was elected President in 1958. While these were the only elected offices she ever held, she discovered in herself an exceptional aptitude for politics.
Her energy and ability to work with others to get things done, coupled with her intellect and astuteness to the mechanics of the political process soon brought her to the attention of scions of then dominant old Byrd political machine. Governor J. Lindsay Almond appointed Miss Peebles to the Governorâ??s Committee to employ the handicapped and later the Governorâ??s Advisory Committee on the Virginia Economy. She was named one of the laymen on the Steering Committee for Virginia to the White House Conference on children and youth in 1960. That same year, Governor Almond appointed her to a four year term as a member of the Virginia Educational Assistance Authority.
Her involvement in Virginia political life began in 1961, when Albertis S. Harrison, Jr. capitalized on her experience and the connections she had made through her civic work and enlisted her in his successful gubernatorial race. She had found her element; her advice was increasingly courted and her political influence grew space.
Miss Peebles co-chaired Mills E. Godwin, Jrs. run for governor in 1965, was Womenâ??s Chair for U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jrs. races in 1966 and 1970, and was co-chairman of his successful last re-election race for the United States Senate in 1976.
By the 1970â??s, the conservative spirit of the Byrd organization, uncomfortable in the evolving Democratic Party, found a new roost in the Virginia Republican Party. When Mills Godwin, Jr. launched his 1973 bid to return to the Governorâ??s office as a newly-minted Republican, Miss Peebles was his campaign coordinator. Godwin won and Miss Peebles went on to manage the â??Virginians for Daltonâ? office in 1977 that helped put John Dalton in the Executive Mansion. Then in 1981, Democrat Charles Robb benefited from her skills as a principal on the â??Virginians for Robbâ? committee that helped elect him Governor.
While Miss Peebles was prominent in the successful election campaigns of four Virginia Governors and repeatedly helped secure the re-election of U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr., she continued to work for the interests of Sussex County and the rest of rural Southside Virginia in the Virginia General Assembly. She maintained local offices for the late State Senator Garland â??Peckâ? Gray, and later was legislative aide and campaign manager to his son and successor, the late State Senator Elmond T. Gray.
Although Miss Peebles was increasingly involved in Virginia politics from 1961 onward, her interest in and service to education in Virginia was undiminished. Governor Almond appointed her to the State Board of Education in 1962, upon the appointment of then Board President Lewis F. Powell to the United States Supreme Court. Miss Peebles succeeded him to become the first female President of the State Board of Education. She chaired the John Tyler Community College Board from 1978 to 1980. Miss Peebles was appointed to the Board of Visitors of her Alma Mater, the College of William and Mary in 1974 and reappointed by three successive Virginia Governors serving an unprecedented 13 year term, the last three as Rector. William and Mary had previously benefited from the services from 1959 to 1966 on the Collegeâ??s Alumni Board of Directors. The college recognized her dedication in 1969 when it awarded her the William and Mary Alumni Medallion for service and loyalty.
Miss Peeblesâ?? achievements in service to Virginiaâ??s educational community overshadowed her efforts on behalf of healthcare. She was a founding member of the Massey Cancer Center Advisory Board at the Medical College of Virginia (now Virginia Commonwealth University) where she worked as both an active and emeritus member for more than thirty years. From 1987 to 2003, she was a Trustee of the Hospital Authority Commission of Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg, VA and served a term as its Board Chairman. She was the Sussex District Representative to the Patrick Henry Hospital for the Chronically Ill from 1947 to 1953.
Miss Peebles relished political life, but never sought elective office. Her gift was in her ability to quickly size up a situation or issue, determine the most practical means to resolve the problems which it addressed, and then to find and persuade capable individuals to become involved and to cooperate toward that resolution. She moved quietly but with the utmost grace and tact to achieve the desired ends. She once explained that the trick was to convince those who would make the decisions to first envision the legitimacy and/or mobility of the goal, then to get them on board, and finally to convince them the idea was theirs, at which time theyâ??d commit themselves doggedly to its success. To this end she unashamedly charmed, cajoled, persuaded and arm-twisted and out-foxed whatever it took. Her philosophy reflected an old Chinese proverb to the effect that â??itâ??s amazing what you can get done when you donâ??t worry about who gets the creditâ?. Miss Peebles never lost sight that the bottom line was getting things done.
Among the many awards and honors bestowed on her in recognition of her public service was her designation in 1988 by the Virginia General Assembly as a â??Virginian Cultural Laureateâ? for outstanding contributions to the Commonwealth. In 2003 she was named â??Virginia Woman in Historyâ? by the Library of Virginia. She was the recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service in 1983. In 1978 the Daughter of the American Revolution presented her the American Revolution Medal of Honor and Certificate, their highest award. The Virginia Association of Electric Cooperative named her the â??Unsung Virginian of 1975â?. Her William and Mary College class of 1944 presented her itâ??s â??Bright Starâ? award in 1989, recognizing her distinguished career, devotion to the College and Service to Alumni. In 1988 the Board of Visitors and the College of William and Mary bestowed upon her the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
But, it was from the many bright hopeful young students for whom Miss Peebles wrote letters of recommendation as they sought admission to Virginia Colleges and Universities that Miss Peebles said she received the highest honor as she watched them go on to successful careers in education, medicine and community service, helping to move Virginia always forward. Her greatest satisfaction came from those who returned with their learning and capabilities to her native Southside Virginia and gave back to their home communities.
Except for her years as a student at the College of William and Mary, Miss Peebles called Dunnlora Farm near Carson, Virginia â??homeâ?. There she enjoyed the company of friends, participated in the upbringing and educationâ??s of her much loved nieces and was a faithful, life-long congregant of Salem Methodist Church. She believed there was no greater blessing them to be a Virginian.
Miss Peebles was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Captain Thomas Nathaniel Peebles and her brother-in-law Melvin Riedel â??Blueâ? Lilley. She is survived by her sister, Rebecca P. Bowen and husband, Dr. Robert R. Bowen of Lynchburg; her sister, Alice Peebles Lilley of Carson; two nieces, Rebecca Anne Lilley of Carson and her husband, Jim Thomas and Mary Dunn Conover and husband, Harold of Stony Creek; two great nieces, Mary Alice Dalton and husband, Randy of Disputanta, and Laura Lilley Ellis and husband, Jeff and great-great niece, Claire Emmerson Ellis and great-great nephew, Griffin Brooks Ellis all of Montpelier; and her dearest friend and college classmate Mary Scott Buck of Cape Charles.
A family member once described Miss Peebles as an Old Virginian immersed in the â??real politicâ? of a modernizing Virginia, who spoke in the cadences of William Faulkner. Ask her the time and sheâ??d eventually tell you, but in the process youâ??d learn the history of watch making in Virginia and the line of inheritance of her great-grandfathers pocket watch, and youâ??d enjoy it all!
The Miss Peebles we remember best cradled an orphan kitten in her lap. She never forgot where she came from, and we knew her as just â??Annieâ?.
In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution to the Anne Dobie Peebles Scholarship at Richard Bland College, 11301 Johnson Road, Petersburg, VA 23805 or to Hospice of Virginia, 1700 Bayberry Court, Suite 300, Richmond, VA 23226. The family will receive friends beginning 10:00 am one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Funeral service will be held on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 11:00 am in the Petersburg Chapel of J.T. Morriss & Son Funeral Home & Cremation Service. Interment will be private. Condolences may be registered at www.jtmorriss.com .